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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “tag cloud”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “tag cloud”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 12 of the top 20. 4 plugins are pushed down for signals wp.org ignores: errors, a host-installed base, or removal risk.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

Ranked above its merit

Tilted Tag Cloud Widget shows at wp.org #8 but places #23 on merit, a gap of 15 places. Its 70+ installs carry it up the search order; its 4.3★ average from 3 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk places #9 on merit, 4.8★ from 3220 reviews, but shows at wp.org #16. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 PublishPress Tag Groups: Stylish Displays For Your Tags and Categories 3K+ · 4.8★ (57) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 UpdraftPlus: WP Backup & Migration Plugin 4M+ · 4.8★ (8706) wp.org #5 ↓1 3 too low 3 PublishPress Taxonomies – Tag, Category, and Taxonomy Manager – Autotagger Automatically Add Terms 40K+ · 4.6★ (195) wp.org #4 ↓1 1 too low 4 Code Snippets 1M+ · 4.7★ (510) wp.org #3 ↑2 1 too high 5 Categorized Tag Cloud 1K+ · 3.8★ (10) wp.org #1 4 too high 6 Translate WordPress with GTranslate 900K+ · 4.9★ (4962) wp.org #7 ↓1 1 too low 7 Premium Addons for Elementor – AI-Ready Elementor Addons, Widgets & Templates 600K+ · 4.9★ (1680) wp.org #10 3 too low 8 Pixel Manager for WooCommerce – Conversion Tracking, Google Ads, GA4, TikTok, Dynamic Remarketing 40K+ · 4.9★ (399) wp.org #12 4 too low 9 Anti-Spam, Spam FireWall by CleanTalk 200K+ · 4.8★ (3220) wp.org #16 7 too low 10 WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers + Custom Code Snippets – WordPress Code Manager 3M+ · 4.9★ (1915) wp.org #14 ↓3 4 too low 11 Media Cloud Sync 1K+ · 4.9★ (13) wp.org #6 ↑2 5 too high 12 Photo Gallery by 10Web – Mobile-Friendly Image Gallery 100K+ · 4.5★ (1581) wp.org #13 1 too low 13 BackWPup – WordPress Backup & Restore Plugin 400K+ · 4.0★ (1323) wp.org #15 ↑2 2 too low 14 Elementor Website Builder – more than just a page builder 10M+ · 4.5★ (7323) wp.org #18 ↑1 4 too low 15 WP Accessibility 60K+ · 4.8★ (68) wp.org #17 2 too low 16 WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud Storage 30K+ · 3.7★ (115) wp.org #23 ↓1 7 too low 17 Broken Link Checker 500K+ · 3.8★ (605) wp.org #20 ↓6 3 too low 18 C Custom Post Type Widgets 10K+ · 4.8★ (14) wp.org #24 ↓3 6 too low 19 WP-Stateless – Google Cloud Storage 4K+ · 3.9★ (51) wp.org #22 ↑1 3 too low 20 T Taxonomy List Widget 1K+ · 4.3★ (12) wp.org #21 ↓3 1 too low 21 T Taxonomy Dropdown Widget 1K+ · 4.7★ (9) wp.org #19 ↓4 2 too high 22 WP Global Site Tag 7K+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #9 13 too high 23 Tilted Tag Cloud Widget 70+ · 4.3★ (3) wp.org #8 ↓1 15 too high 24 Ultimate Tag Cloud Elementor Addon 400+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 ↑1 13 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.